Address of DR. REBECCA MAE SALOKAR

Given on Sunday, April 4, 2004, on the occasion of her induction
as an Alumna Member of Phi Beta Kappa, Epsilon Chapter.

I would first like to thank my colleague Judith Stiehm for nominating
me for this honor and the faculty members of the chapter for recognizing
my work not only as an undergraduate at FIU, but for what I have done since.
It is truly an honor.

I would also like to the opportunity to recognize someone who has played
a special role in my education and in my career. That person is Dr. Brian
Nelson—who has been my mentor, role model and friend for over 20 years.

While I did not quite follow in his footsteps by pursuing political theory
in graduate school, it was Professor Nelson who taught me the value of a
well-rounded education in the liberal arts and with other members of the
faculty, gave me the foundational tools to pursue my own career. He urged
me to read broadly and to study intensively. Watching him, I learned to be
unselfish with my knowledge and to share my excitement and love of ideas with
my students. I think I learned your lessons well, Brian, as I look out
upon several of my students who today join me in this honor. Thank you,
Brian, for a lifetime of guidance.

I join you today in sharing a special educational accomplishment—we
are all now members of a prestigious national honor society. Two of us,
however, have the truly unique perspective of some twenty and thirty years
beyond our undergraduate education—we can be your crystal ball and
tell you what this might all mean to you somewhere down the road.

First, your undergraduate education is foundational—it is a base from
which most of you will launch your graduate education and eventually a career.
You are likely never again to have the opportunity to study so broadly ever
again (and trust me, you will yearn for these days). But by attaining a
strong liberal arts and sciences grounding, you have prepared yourself for
opportunities that are yet unknown but surely within your reach.

Second, you have reached this place in your lives because you have
developed a love of learning. Accomplishing what you have has not been easy,
and you certainly have not reached this place simply because your parents
wanted you to go to college. You are here because somehow you found within
yourselves the inquisitiveness to reach beyond memorizing facts and dates,
and bones, and muscles or music scores or famous artists. You are not here
because you have learned to color within the lines. You have a desire to
learn that will remain with you for a lifetime.

Finally, and you may not know it yet, you have the ability to do something
that you think everyone learned in kindergarten—you can connect the dots.
But these dots are not simply marks on paper—your FIU education has
given you the analytical skills to make connections between diverse ideas
and the ability to draw lines that may not necessarily be straight but rather
multi-dimensional between those ideas.

So, what do you do with this knowledge and these skills? Use them, of
course. How you use them will depend on where the next level of education
and your career takes you, but you will find yourself reaching into that tool
chest on a regular basis. There is no single formula for the future of a
member of Phi Beta Kappa—what we share is where we have been. And what
we do with our education is up to each of us individually.

Tools can get rusty and occasionally need a bit of oiling and grinding to
remain sharp. Allow me suggest a couple of avenues for keeping them well
honed when you have left the academy and find yourself in the throes of a
career and family life.

First, take regular time-outs. Whether it is ten minutes or an hour,
try to allow yourself to sit quietly on a regular basis—alone in a
safe place (that would not be in a car in Dade County) with no computer or
cell phone or even a book. And what should you do during this time out?
Well... just think. Disengagement from the daily grind is becoming ever
more important—yet it is harder to do.

Think about the great ideas, performances, and people that you studied
while as a student. Meander about in your mind and ponder what is truly
important to life. Keep your inquisitiveness alive—by giving yourself
the time to think. I find it a bit absurd that today’s
American society treats time-outs as punishment for its children—I
keep hoping someone will send me to the corner!

Second, take detours in life, open doors that say
“do not enter,” and my gosh, break a few rules. The safest
direction is mundane and boring. Taking a detour will force you to use your
analytical abilities to confront and solve problems that others will never
imagine. And who knows, you might just find a shortcut as well as a little
excitement along the way!

Third, ask why? Keep wondering and keep asking. The education
you have received here at FIU is one rooted in forward thinking. Even
historians study the past in order to understand the present and to anticipate
the future. Never accept the status quo as the best we can hope for—keep
asking why, keep looking for something better than what is.

And finally, I am taking a liberty on behalf of my faculty colleagues here
to invite you to keep in touch with us and FIU in the future. Call
us—tell us what you are doing or working on. Come back and enjoy an
opportunity to engage in the richness of conversations about great ideas,
great discoveries and great performances. Trust me, I have never heard my
colleagues complain when one of our best and brightest calls to check in and
chat. You will always be a very important part of this university.

So, I wish you many timeouts, many detours, and many important questions.
And I wish you success and happiness in your endeavors, wherever they shall
take you. Thank you.